The challenges facing Rodrigo Chaves in Costa Rica

After winning April’s presidential election on an anti-establishment platform in one of Latin America’s most robust democracies, 60-year-old economist Rodrigo Chaves takes office today in Costa Rica. It is his first-ever elected office.

Mr. Chaves surprised many when he made it to the runoff stage, and then quickly became the frontrunner in the head-to-head contest against former President José María Figueres. In the end, he beat Mr. Figures by 6 points. Turnout was low (57 percent, against an average of 64 percent), which many saw as indicative of a crisis facing the political system.

Mr. Chaves’ inexperience, coupled with the fact that his political party holds only ten of the 57 seats in Congress, led many to doubt his capacity to implement the serious reforms his program promised.

During the campaign, he said he would try to circumvent legislative opposition by resorting to referendums to pass his proposals. 

His Social Democratic Party has proposed to change the laws governing referendums, extending their scope, halving the threshold needed to call them (down to 2.5 percent of voters, instead of 5), removing caps...